Same-sex marriage

A personal story of a same-
sex marriage by a wife/parent

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Background:

Marci Weis is the COO of a healthcare consulting and care management company in Washington State. She is working towards a Masters in Divinity degree and hopes to be ordained by the United Church of Christ.

She told the story of her family on the CNN web site, on 2012-JAN-02, the day of a critical vote on a bill to legalize same-sex marriage in Washington state's Senate.

The following is an excerpt of 473 words which is about the maximum that we can quote without violating copyright laws. The full article is at http://inamerica.blogs.cnn.com/

"Inside our scary, society-destroying family:"

"And so it has begun again, this time for the legalization of marriage for gays and lesbians in Washington state. The battle has occurred in the legislature and most likely will move to a general election. Again, sides have been chosen and a fair number of my fellow Christians have argued that my love, my family, undermines society by our very existence. While I strongly support marriage equality, the debate over the right for gays and lesbians to marry raises a much more pressing concern for me. Why do my Christian brothers and sisters feel so strongly that my love, my relationship, my family has the power to shred the fabric of our very society?

So I have to ask, do you know my family? We are not unlike many of you. We are a family formed from the foundational love of two people, formed through tentative steps, risks taken and hearts put on the line. We moved from the blush of first love to the challenges of living in union with each other while allowing the other the chance to grow and change. We failed as often as we succeeded, sometimes learning, sometimes not. We made the decision that we were called to be together for the rest of our lives. We shared sacred and holy (though not legal) vows in front of our God, our family and our friends. On that day, we danced in celebration with our community and we danced in celebration with our God.

We chose to start a family. We lived through the heartache of infertility, trying month after month to get pregnant. We lived through the fear, the anticipation and the subsequent shocking and awe-inspiring beauty of holding our newborn daughter in our arms. Twenty months later, we held her sister, tears streaming down our faces as the four of us lay in a hospital bed, marveling at the miracle of life and love. We struggled as new parents. We struggled through a job layoff and the subsequent financial challenges many families with young children face. We struggled to remember that we were in love when faced with two toddlers whose needs were always front and center. We watched our daughters grow and change.

Now, as they enter their tween years, my partner and I can begin to see flashes of the women that they are becoming and it scares us, excites us and saddens us.

Through it all, my true love, our two daughters and I have loved each other in that beautiful, flawed and ever-expanding way that we humans love. Through it all, we have tried to be good members of the communities we are blessed to walk in. Through it all, we have tried to rest peacefully in the beauty of a God that clearly shines through in our love for each other.